by susan | Feb 7, 2013 | Uncategorized
I’ve had a twitter account for almost 2 years now. I’ve tweeted 6 times, none of them earth-shattering, brilliant, or even anything close to pithy.
I amaze myself with my boring, deeply uncreative approach to twitter: am I truly this dull?
I tell myself the problem is that as a writer I simply have too much to say. tweeting is like writing a synopsis: coming up with a meaningful tweet is–for me–akin to taking an entire 350-page book and condensing it to one page. my inspiration does not seem to come in short-and-sweet, pithy, or concise varieties, and my little-teeny ego does not like to be edited.
that being said, I am always one for self-improvement. matthew kelly said it best (and then I painted in on my mirrored dining room wall): it’s our job to become the next best version of ourselves. no matter how great I/we/whomever might be today, there is always an opportunity for us to become even better/richer/deeper tomorrow. thus…can you feel this coming? I’m assigning myself a new task.
writing synopses and “book cover copy” is an important part of being a writer. we’re told if we cannot describe our project in a sentence or two, we’ll never be able to sell it. agents and publishers accept and reject projects off of information gleaned from one-page query letters and brief (one-paragraph to three-page) synopses. it’s crucial that a writer learn to be succinct. (I just chopped off the last two words of that sentence, “when necessary” because they weren’t really necessary. )
so my new self-assigned task is to work on my tweets. not that I expect my tweets to save the world, inspire others, or change lives; I simply see it as a skill that I have an opportunity to develop. I am setting a goal of tweeting something every week that is neither copied from someone else nor a weather report. neither an action recap (rode my bike today!) nor a wish list (wish the sun were shining so I could ride my bike!) but a statement in 140-characters-or-less that is, somehow, worth reading.
yes I’m nervous. I’m already thinking I’ll have to start a new “tweet” notebook to jot ideas and notes in, and that I’m going to be spending an inordinate amount of time worrying about this. but because I’ve said it, I’m now going to do it. and to help keep me honest I’m posting my twitter address (do they even call it that?) here so you can check up on me:
@susanibird13
watch me learn how to tweet! (and then someday I’ll learn about hashtags. maybe.)
hey, it’s hard to get someplace if you’re not willing to do the work.
by susan | Dec 6, 2012 | Uncategorized
life shifts in subtle ways daily, most so minor we can neither see nor feel them. we age, our bike tires wear thinner and thinner, dust collects on our bedside stack of books.
and then there are larger shifts: we give birth, we change jobs, we move. we choose a new school, a new career, a new partner, we take up a new sport.
I’ve been through so many shifts and changes in the past 10 years I don’t know that I could ever list them all, but today’s is momentous, so I am sharing it here: my first book is in print! (well, it’s not my first book, but it’s the first of my books to be in print.)
released yesterday, Faith Greater Than Pain is available on amazon.com, createspace.com, and on FaithGreaterThanPain.com.
Doc Cleland and I have been working on this project together since june of 2010, and we are thrilled to be where we are, with a real book in hand. we are in the midst of marketing madness, working on mailing lists and store contacts and bribery lists . . . asking everyone we know to help spread the word, using every tool we have to get the information out.
I, of course, would rather just be writing away on my next project (stay tuned), but for the last chunk of time I’ve been editing, proofing, and formatting, and now I’ve plunked my marketing cap on my head. writing me is not pleased, but realistic me knows that as gratifying as it is to write, it’s even more gratifying if someone actually reads what you write.
so, if you’re intrigued, here’s a link to doc’s great video that tells you about the book, and if you have a spare moment in your day today, wish me well. wish me sales and positive reviews, wish me fulfillment and encouragement to keep on with the next project.
because as sure as my tires wear thinner and those wrinkles around my eyes deepen, I dream about spending the rest of my life writing, and–ideally–being read.
by susan | Oct 22, 2012 | Uncategorized
I’ve always wanted a mentor.
someone who’d take me under their wing, provide guidance and wisdom and support, help me connect with those people I’m supposed to connect with. someone wiser, more established, someone who’s been there and done that. instead, my experience has been that most everyone I meet is in the same boat as I am in, using similar oars, being frustrated by the same currents and storms and periods of flat water and drifting. this isn’t to say that I’ve never had hands reach out for mine and offer assistance; it’s just to say that it’s my dream to have someone who knows more than me, who knows better than me, to be in my corner.
(I’ve recently had someone come into my life who is, in a way, playing this role . . . it is early, there is much still unknown, but it’s possible we may move more into the mentor-mentee relationship. I am grateful for what he and his wife have shared with me so far, and want to acknowledge this . . . thanks mark and kirsten.)
thus, in the spirit of mahatma gandhi who encourages us to be the change we wish to see in the world, I am working to share what I know, what I possess, who I am, with those who are trying to paddle through waters similar to those I choose to travel.
I have a friend who has written a manuscript–with her daughter as co-author–that is languishing in a cobwebbed computer file. it needs attention: reviewing, tweaking, possibly editing . . . it needs to be read by someone else, someone who has some experience with writing and editing. thus I offered to read it, to give my opinion of what might need to happen next, where it might go. it happens to be a YA (young adult) book . . . I happen to know someone with multiple connections in that area. I will do everything I can to help this friend and her daughter move forward with this manuscript, hopefully all the way to publication.
I have another friend who’s written a manuscript which I reviewed, offering suggestions and fixing errors and typos. she’s leaning toward self-publication, and I offered to do anything I can to help her in that process, including formatting it.
I do these things because I’m able, because I receive some internal fulfillment from doing them, and, ultimately, because these are the things I myself wish to receive. some say that the universe will respond, which would be fantastic. but even if it doesn’t, I am deeply gratified by being even a small part of the creation of a book, whether it’s my own or someone else’s. I’m quite certain mahatma would have felt the same.
by susan | Sep 28, 2012 | Uncategorized
five years ago I attended my first yoga class, after which I swallowed my pride, shrugged off my embarrassment, and went to another one.
since that time yoga has been part of my life . . . not a large part, but a consistent, significant part. my belief about yoga is that if we all learned to move our bodies and minds in this way, and practiced yoga at even a small level on a consistent basis, our world would gradually move into greater harmony.
laugh, smirk, roll your eyes: I know this to be true.
yoga teaches you to respect yourself, your body, your fellow classmates. it teaches you to find balance, to discover the place between enough and too much. it teaches you to breathe deeply, to remove extraneous thought, to focus on doing simple things well. it hones your muscles, it leads to improved posture, it allows your joints freedom and opportunity to expand their flexibility. it teaches you acceptance, awareness, and the fulfilling task of honoring small things.
karan, a yoga instructor whose classes are fabulous and worth rearranging one’s schedule for, is on vacation (kayaking the grand canyon) for a few weeks. yesterday’s substitute for her class was a pilates teacher, and instead of yoga–to my complete surprise–we did floor pilates. hmm. I walked in craving a yoga class, and had to–repeatedly–remind myself that I would receive from this class the fullest benefit only if I opened my mind and let go of what I thought I wanted. so I did pilates, trusting that I would benefit in ways I couldn’t imagine. ruts are to be avoided as they are known to grab your tires and, often, cause you to fall . . .
where am I going with this? why, on to editing, of course.
it’s the rare human who asks someone to take their creation and adjust it, tweak it, fix it, then return it, covered with red marks, suggestions, big bold black lines through parts of it. yet we writers are encouraged to do this again and again, from our first grade school stories through high school and college essays to whatever our next creations might be. not only must we learn the art of writing, we must learn the art of receiving, weeding through, and accepting critiques. and just as open-mindedness helps one take a pilates class when one came for yoga, open-mindedness helps one listen to feedback regarding one’s written creations.
breathing deeply helps, as does a quiet room, as does a bit of time.
and just as I can’t always know how those “hundreds” and “oblique lifts” will impact my strength and flexibility, I can’t always know how someone else’s critiques and edits will impact my work. what I can know is that my job is to trust the universe. to trust that in allowing it to sometimes shake things up for me I am opening myself up to opportunities I wouldn’t otherwise have. my body–my heart–my work–my life will be better for letting others add whatever it is they’re meant to add.
by susan | Aug 23, 2012 | Uncategorized
I give my files quirky names.
I could be (should be) better organized, placing everything properly in labeled folders so that I could find things more easily, naming my files descriptively, deleting old versions, all of that. but instead, I name files whimsically, capriciously, and suffer the consequences later.
sometimes I remember what I did, and sometimes I don’t.
what brings this to mind is that I’ve been working on a synopsis for my latest manuscript. I hate working on synopses. verbosity is my friend; concision isn’t. yesterday I had to provide a 500 word synopsis for an agency: I began with my 978-word synopsis (which was labeled synopsis attempt 17) and started whittling. pain. agony. frustration.
I had to leave the table and then return. I printed out the 978-word version (which had been culled from a 3-page, 1200-word version) and took my precise-V fine-tip pen and struck through words and lines, squiggling out half a paragraph. then another sentence. two words. an “and,” the word “unbelievable.” I ate lunch. struck another clause. napped. returned, once again, to the table.
I had it down to 513 words after an hour’s diligent work had passed. sweat gathered on my brow. another chop, and then, who needs that sentence, voila, 497 words. which 3 could I re-add?
I saved that version as “synopsis attempt 18.” I may or may not remember that this is the 500-word version. perhaps I should rename it “synopsis attempt 18: 500 words.” that would be logical, possibly helpful in the future, definitely wise. but wordy. a more organized person would probably label this file “500 word synopsis” and call it good.
editing superfluousness is always a challenge.
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